We are given two reasons Cowboys fans should love having Jerry Jones for their team’s owner: His commitment to winning at any cost and his slick, wheeler-dealer, deal-making skills.

Well, that whole commitment to winning at any cost thing has hardly been provable since Jerry took on the mortgage for the new stadium. He has sometimes rivaled Ebenezer Scrooge for his penny-pinching, passing on free agents in positions of need.

Besides, just how much winning have the Cowboys done since the best move Jerry Jones ever made was run out of town after winning consecutive Super Bowls? Jerry won the pissing contest with Jimmy Johnson by pretty much whizzing all over Cowboys fans. That began a long and storied run of the arrogant Napoleonic dictator trying to prove his manhood and his ludicrous statement that “any of five hundred coaches could have won the Super Bowl” with that talent. Cowboys suffered through regimes headed by the Dave Campos and Wade Phillipses of the world.

Brilliant!

So, let’s chill on that “win at any cost” compliment. It ain’t so. He won’t win at the cost of his own ridiculous ego and he isn’t near the free-spender you think, either.

Now, to the second point: The one about his deal-making skills.

Someone please explain to me how someone with the girth of Philadelphia Eagles’ coach Andy Reid managed to sneak into the bargaining room undetected and snag Nnamdi Asomugha right from under Jerry’s smug nose?

Concerning the Eagles’ Apache-like scalping of the Cowboys and Jets– the two teams supposed to be frontrunners for Nnamdi’s services– Jason Cole of Yahoo Sports wrote, “The move to snag Asomugha from underneath the likes of the New York Jets and Dallas Cowboys was cold-blooded. Eagles team president Joe Banner might intimidate Suge Knight right now (and anybody who has ever seen Banner knows what a long shot that is). The Eagles didn’t just send a shot across the bow at the rest of the NFL, they sent 31 blasts at each opponent.”

The insufferable rah-rah cheerleaders masquerading as a news outlet at Philly.com crowed, “The moves back up the team’s promise to be aggressive in free agency. They are also a clear sign of coach Andy Reid’s commitment to win big and win now as he enters his 13th season in Philadelphia.”

I know. I know. This is the time to be optimistic and upbeat. After all, the strike is ended. Football is back. And we are fans of the Dallas Cowboys, dammit!

I’m trying. I just can’t shake this feeling that Jerry Jones is really the Devil incarnate. And I, for one, am a little weary of giving the Devil his due.